> If you sell it for $5 on the App Store, you keep $3.5. Try $0. Look at the App Store charts. The 200 top grossing apps are ironically all "Free": https://app

> If you sell it for $5 on the App Store, you keep $3.5. Try $0. Look at the App Store charts. The 200 top grossing apps are ironically all "Free": https://appfigures.com/top-apps/ios-app-store/united-states/iphone/top-overall https://appfigures.com/top-apps/ios-app-store/united-states/... This is the real problem, the crApp Store race to the bottom. Apple's cut was never really the problem. The cut is obscene, but only because the prices are already obscenely low. I'd be happy to give Apple 50% if I could sell my software for higher prices. > And you sell 100,000. Good luck with that. > You also have to set up a server to serve the downloads and pay hosting, storage, and bandwidth. Cheap. > As well as shipping updates to all of your customers. As well as ensuring updates are compatible for any iOS version your customers might be using. There's going to be some level of customer support required. You have to do these things anyway. > Finally, how are people going to discover your app? You aren't on any app stores, so you have to advertise. You'll need to market. And -- convince people that you aren't going to infect their device with malware. You have to do all of this stuff regardless of whether you're in the App Store. As an App Store developer myself, I can tell you that Apple absolutely does not do these things for you. Notice how many Mac developers, given the choice, choose to distribute themselves rather than via the Mac App Store. They don't see the App Store as a win like you do.